Posted on 09/08/2004 3:43:04 PM PDT by plushaye
John Kerry had it all worked out. A decorated war hero against a Texan gunslinger who had bungled the first war he had chosen to fight.
A year ago, John Kerry was dreaming of a presidential debate in which George Bush wilted under Mr Kerry's encyclopaedic knowledge of the world. But the Yale frat boys have given him a severe awakening. Like Al Gore, John Kerry appears to have badly underestimated George Bush's raw talent for the campaign fight.
John Kerry was lulled into making Vietnam the centrepiece of his character, only to find himself running for cover under withering sniper fire from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Then along came the Republican Party, and with all the grace of an abattoir, sliced and diced his character at their Convention and spat him out 10 points behind in the polls.
It is certainly not pretty but it is very effective.
At least that is how it looks from the back of the circle.
John Kerry can come back - the amazing thing about politics is that people do return from the dead. And this week, the greatest Lazarus of all had some useful advice for Mr Kerry.
From his pre-surgery hospital bed, Bill Clinton passed on two pieces of advice to the embattled Senator: 1. Focus on the economy. 2. Elections are about the future not the past.
"He always felt that you've got to give people a reason to vote for you and give people a choice," one of Bill Clinton's former aides told the Washington Post.
"He believes that at the end of the day that if you do make it an effective choice for the voters, they'll figure it out. But the burden's on the candidate to make the case."
Iraq's currency as a political weapon is declining. Even when seven soldiers died in one attack this week, the story was crowded out of the front pages by other news. Americans, always keen to move on to the next thing, are running out of outrage over Iraq.
And at their convention, the Republicans neatly folded Iraq into the War on Terrorism, an area where Bush has a significant lead over Kerry.
If most Americans ever realised that the present unrest in Iraq was caused by Mr Bush and his decision to invade, they have probably forgotten it by now.
To them, Moqtada Sadr and co have merged with Bin Laden, Mullah Omar, Mohammed Atta and the others.
The economy, however, offers a much more fruitful line of attack for the Democrats.
One senior Republican acknowledged to me this week that the White House was preoccupied with the size of the budget deficit and the ballooning cost of the Medicare programme that they pushed through Congress.
Karl Rove knows very well that both are marks of shame among Republicans and that many Republican conservatives are very disappointed in Mr Bush's big government habits.
This week, John Kerry finally got round to these issues.
"Only George W Bush could celebrate over a record budget deficit of $422 billion, a loss of 1.6 million jobs and Medicare premiums that are up by a record 17%," Mr Kerry told a crowd in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Now he just needs to keep on this message for the next two months.
Americans want to know, quite understandably, what Mr Kerry would do for them if they gave him the job. He has managed to convey very little so far about what kind of a president he would make. Describing what you did 35 years ago does not go very far.
But attacking Mr Bush's economic record could help voters to get a better idea of what he would and would not do.
The economy may not be John Kerry's first love or his greatest strength, but it may be the only thing that can save him from defeat.
"Then along came the Republican Party, and with all the grace of an abattoir, sliced and diced his character at their Convention and spat him out 10 points behind in the polls.
It is certainly not pretty but it is very effective."
LOL. Actually I thought it was one of the most beautiful things ive ever seen.
And here is me thinking all along that it was his NAVEL!
The Las Vegas Review Journal reports this AM that the most common question asked of voting officials in the primary election yesterday was "why wasn't Kerry's name on the ballot?"--- by November you can bet all these ignoramuses voting for the first time will know where it is or will have already been helped to vote absentee----
So did I.
The funniest part is that it is clearly in the context of the author's unhappiness that John Kerry stinks so fiercely.
I really would like to see economists out there slapping Kerry in the face with the fact that more Home based business and small business jobs have been created under GW than at any time in our history... In Liberty's Century these jobs have got to be counted as an economic plus... of course the manufacturing and call center jobs were shipped overseas but that cost savings has been passed on to consumers as lower cost... (read low inflation)... If Kerry brings those jobs back and cuts GW's tax cuts on the wealthy inflation will go thru the roof... These business will not hire american workers at the union wages and eat the cost... Plus Kerry would cut many government contractors which is a lot of jobs since the right-sizing of the military in the 90's. So what we will get is high inflation and lower paying jobs.. I think GW needs to convey the message of why the economy is strong and the changes that we are seeing in that economy from the one built in pre-cold war era...just like he did with the ownership theme.. .I paralleled them both but many people may not see it like this.
Ditto... it was a rare work of art.
Yes, it really surprised me too. I was expecting worse.
We remember that the unrest that caused 9/11 was simply because we exist. And since we intend to continue to exist, it's better the unrest be over there than over here.
This cart-before-the-horse Euroweenie needs to get a life.
This article would be true if the unemployment rate was at 6.2% and the economy was in a recession.
I was wondering how the BBfnC anointed Clinton with this term...it's not the man ever pulled a Harry Truman or anything. What a joke.
Then he'll have something to troll under.
I can hear it now on CBS, NBC, ABC -- Is Kerry the "Comeback Kid" Part II. They are going to try and talk up the campaign just like they talk down the economy every night. I'm going to hurl...
Not if anyone bothers to chart the beginning of the last recession along with it accompanying job losses.
But who is going to do that?
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